Data Strategy Template v1 2
Data Strategy Template v1 2
Contents
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Our vision for data
Context:
[To include]
- what the institution does
- why data is a vital to the success of this
o What is collected
o What is processed
o What is presented
o Etc.
- How data must be managed as an asset
o Value
o Governance
o Outputs
o Opportunities
Details:
[Sample]
Basics – doing the things right. Governance/best practice for the operational data.
Regulatory and legal obligations. Support for efficiencies and better decision making
Culture – Doing the right things. Exploiting the opportunities of doing the things right.
Institutional wide view of value/power data and education of responsibilities. How to drive
culture to see services as data driven activities and look to build on owned data with
external sources.
Opportunity – How the vision will support the aspirations/public strategy of the institution.
Why it’s important to link the two. What might that look like.
Context
[Sample]
“This Data Strategy provides the foundation for achieving our vision for data. It defines the
relationships between data and the business context in which we operate, the outcomes we
aim to achieve from successful implementation of the strategy, and the capabilities and
culture we need to develop to realise these outcomes”
“This strategy will inform the development and implementation strategy programme and
projects and investment decisions including IT infrastructure. It will inform the development
of new products and services and operational planning, decision-making and delivery across
the business. More specifically, the strategy provides the foundation for the development
and implementation of a range of underpinning data and information policies and
procedures.”
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Section 1: Defining the business context
[Now list how a data strategy would support this. Begin with something like this]
An effective Data Strategy helps to exploit new opportunities to generate income, minimise
risks from competitors, and ultimately thrive in different and diversifying education and HE
markets.
[List of benefits as defined in the process. Always around either ‘reducing the cost of
processing data’ or ‘increasing the value of data we hold/link’]
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Section 3: Defining business capabilities
[Sample]
We realise our vision for data through a four layer model:
Data
Data Governance
Management
Principles
Business
Data Architecture
Intelligence
To deliver this new data governance framework we develop and grow data governance and
data management knowledge and skills within the business.
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We use a standard architectural approach in line with IT strategy and/or roadmaps, including
standards, principles and models.
These capabilities support better data integration, data management and quality and will be
realised through the introduction of policies, processes and automated tools. Performance
is measured by a set of metrics and KPIs to determine the quality of data assets.
A BI environment can provide near real-time and historical data underpinned by a range of
BI and analytical tools. This is based on industry best practice and can be supported by the
establishment of a virtual BI competency centre in the business.
Information is managed
Information should be managed – stored, protected and exploited – according to its value.
Information owners/stewards [these may not be how these roles are named in your organisation]
need to consider the whole lifecycle of the information, from identification of need, creation,
quality assurance, maintenance, reuse and ultimately to archiving or destruction once the
information has ceased to be useful. [consider this in the context of architectural debt]
A range of best practices need to be in place, for example to ensure appropriate availability and
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integrity, avoid loss and ensure continuity across technology upgrades. It is particularly important
that personal data is adequately protected. [Focus on your primary datasets / transaction data]
Information also needs to be governed as it moves through its lifecycle, for example to make sure
it’s always clear who is responsible for it [this is the heart of information asset ownership. Ensure
your organisation has a plan to implement this based on your current or new structure] and to
comply with relevant legislation and regulation. The consistent assessment and ownership of
these information risks is another important consideration when managing data and information.
[This is where you should highlight your data governance function]
The organisational culture must support best practice in information management, and make
sure everyone responsible for processing these business assets is professionally qualified and
appropriately skilled. This principle therefore also includes the processes, roles, responsibilities,
training, and organisational structure and culture needed to ensure the effective and efficient
use of information. [These are the four dimensions of the assessment and are all equally
important. Consider how your organisation will make progress on all these front to support this
principle]
Information is reused
o Information is even more valuable if it can be used more than once or for more than one purpose.
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A good data steward will proactively look for opportunities for reuse. These could include:
o Internal reuse – making the most of information for its primary purpose and identifying
secondary uses. For example, operational data can sometimes be reused to support
performance improvement or research [student data with absolutely everything else.
Student data is the ‘operational hub’ but has many forms of reuse. This principle MUST
be applied early on. If not a lack of reconciliation is the outcome]
o External reuse – sharing information with other organisations, either within the sector or
with private businesses and individuals [Collections, Student Experience, etc. are obvious
candidates here]
o Holding master reference data – ensuring an organisation’s data is the only authoritative
source for business information (eg an authoritative list of organisation codes), which is
nominated, maintained and promoted as such. [This is difficult across the sector but will
in some way be addressed by the landscape. JACS was a classic example held by UCAS
but this eventually became unsustainable. HESA codes are another]
o Whilst this principle strongly encourages reuse, it is important to appreciate that reuse does
require a careful risk-based judgment to be made with regard to exploiting versus protecting
information, as well as consideration to the costs and benefits involved [some reuse scenarios do
not make technical or economic sense, but the principle should be applied and only discarded if
this is clearly the case]
o Information which initially appears unsuitable may be reusable if it can be reformatted. For
example, operational information that identifies individuals can be ‘anonymised’ or aggregated
and then be of wider value. Also, in cases where the partner organisation is known beforehand,
concerns over security or privacy can sometimes be mitigated by means of negotiation, joint-
working and data-sharing agreements [this can be applied to internal data sharing agreements as
well]
Information is accessible
o Individuals and organisations must be able to access information about themselves, along with an
explanation of how that information is used by others. This may be either on request or,
preferably, by making it available by default. In effect, such information should be considered as
belonging to the individual, although entrusted to the care of a public body [This should match
the FOI/DP policies of the organisation, however it is more than just compliance, see below]
o This principle goes beyond minimum legal requirements. It advocates a proactive approach which
makes it easy for individuals to access information about themselves, without having to make a
request and even when access is not mandated in legislation. This might be achieved, for
example, by making it securely available online. Information owners need to consider how this
can work in practice, to enable users to view information and perform transactions, for example
correcting inaccuracies. [Much of the data collected is self certified and that may be the quality
metric. Making information accessible has mutual benefits for the individual and the
organisation]
o Clearly the desire to publish information does need to be balanced against constraints which may
prevent this. Exclusions would include, for example, legally privileged information, information
that is required to maintain security and information that is competitively sensitive.
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Section 5: Delivering data governance
[Sample]
Data governance provides the policies, procedures, functions, and the roles and
responsibilities that are needed to support data architecture, data management and
business intelligence in the institution.
ensure data is secure and well managed, and risks to the organisation are contained
prevent and correct errors in data
measure data quality and provide a framework for data quality improvement that is
monitored and assessed
define the standards to document data and its usage within institution
The main governance body is the Data Governing Board (including any Information Security
Forum). It is responsible for direction and decision-making in support of data governance.
On a day-to-day basis the Data Governance Office is responsible for implementation of data
governance and data assurance.
Executive accountable officer for data – includes the role of senior information risk
owner and is ultimately accountable for the security and quality of data
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Information asset owner – accountable and responsible for data governance and
data management for information within each business unit, ensuring all policies
and procedures are implemented and data quality initiatives are implemented
Data steward – responsible for the application of data governance, data
management and data quality plans on behalf of information assets owners within
each business unit
[Sample]
The data architecture is a key enabler in implementing data management and business
intelligence.
[Note some of these functions may be based in other areas, especially the reference
data/physical layer models. Virtual Data Architecture groups are a possibility but need
managing with care]
The enterprise model is documented using recognised industry standards and using a set of
appropriate modelling tools.
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Business glossary/data dictionary
Deploying a common set of data definitions across the organisation is a critical component in
ensuring data quality, maintaining the integrity of data, reducing the cost of cleaning data
and reducing the complexity of data integration by keeping the duplication of data to a
minimum.
1. It provides an unambiguous view of the data in the institution that can be used to
determine the impact on the organisation resulting from changes to the data. It can
be used to define cost, effort and business benefit to ensure changes are affordable
and architecturally sound
2. It provides a view of data that can be used to determine business risk in terms of:
impact on service due to loss of parts of the data infrastructure
impact on information lifecycle management (ILM) from data change, with
particular reference to interfaces (both internal and external) between
systems
risk resulting from data quality issues
risk from external threats, i.e. security
Architectural Governance
Data changes can have organisation wide impacts and therefore are governed by the wider
architecture group; all data changes will be aligned to the enterprise model.
The following key principles are adhered to in developing and maintaining this model:
All data in transit (all internal and external interfaces) is subject to data governance and data
quality policies.
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Information Lifecycle Management (ILM)
The ILM capability covers the policies and procedures that support data quality, data
logistics and data integration covering the following five stages:
Data quality
A capability is provided that monitors and measures the quality of data as it is captured and
transformed by the institutions processes and is supported by automated toolsets where
appropriate.
The core capabilities are delivered by a small team of people who also have responsibility to
manage and administer the enterprise data architecture and corporate data models.
Organisation
Two core organisational functions deliver the Data Strategy:
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Data governance and control
Data governance comprises the data governance “organisation”, plus policies, procedures,
processes and standards. [List all parties and reference Data Governance Charter]
Data management
To ensure that the institution is successful in delivering timely, robust, consistent, high-
quality data it has the organisational capability to develop and maintain data assets in line
with governance policies, procedures and standards.
Responsibility for the ownership and management of individual data assets is delegated to
the appropriate business function, who are supported by data stewards. In addition, the
data management team supports data quality through data management and master data
management capabilities.
Culture
Our data assets are at the heart of the business. We aim to unlock the power of the data
assets by engendering more understanding within the business about how data can be
employed to improve operational performance, evaluate options and make better
sustainable decisions.
It is essential that everyone who works for the institution understands their responsibilities
for maintaining the integrity and quality of our data assets, complying with data legislation
and regulations, and keeping the data assets safe and secure.
Training covering data protection, information security and Freedom of Information forms a
mandatory part of the induction programme for all institution staff and contractors and
refresher training and communications are undertaken regularly.
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